Thursday, July 26, 2012

It's Not The Geography, Stupid

A lot of energy is being wasted on one of our latest fantasies. That we are going to be the bridge between Asia and Africa. That we will be intercepting a lot of the flows and the business between the two continents. Between African Lions and Asian Tigers. That our geographic location gives us a competitive advantage just like Singapore.

It's an awesome strategy if you haven't looked at a map in a long time or don't have an internet connection. Because otherwise you would have known that there is a huge difference between being lost in the open seas and sitting pretty near the narrowest part of the Strait of Malacca. Maybe you are not to be blamed. As you still can't tell the difference between a weak Euro and a strong rupee. Or between rent-seeking and competitiveness.

First, the Africa mainland is actually as big as USA, China, India, Spain, France, Germany, Italy, Eastern Europe AND Japan taken together. And give a very good look at the Peeters projection, which is actually more accurate than the euro-centric Mercator projection.

Second, the huge majority of air travel can be a good marker of world economic activity, as seen on map #40 here. So, the real 'gateways' are actually Kenya and South Africa.

Now read again the "devenir pleinement the 'gateway'" and try not to cringe or shake your head and smile...

Yeah, after making the African not believe in himself they made his continent a lot smaller than it is.

Map #40 is amazing. Dubai is looking good too and we know Tunisia is not to be sneezed at. Not a lot happening via SSR. And check how the US sees an almost halt of the traffic a couple of hours before the sun rises.

I like Map #3 too: Mongols created their huge empire in less than 100 years. And that too using the horse.

These maps should be seen by our primary school students at the rate of 2 every week or whatever. Just for them to start thinking big early enough.